we back here next sunday original at 5:00 p.m. eastern bringing you the latest buzz. wa ae >> president obama gives his state of the union address on tuesday hoping to jump start his second term. i want to work with congress whenever and wherever i can but what i am emphasizing to all my members of the cabinet, we will not wait. >> we will excuse the agenda, obamacare and more with white house senior advisor. then, republicans set their sites on retaking the senate this november. they hope to overcome the infighting plaguing the party. >> we don't need more class warfare or interference from washington. >> we will talk about the plan of the g.o.p. for 2014 with the top republican in the senate,

mcconnell, a fox news sunday exclusive. >> plus, growing signs hillary clinton plans to run for president. our sunday panel handicaps her chances. all right now on "fox news sunday." >> hello again from fox news in washington, dc. president obama says 2014 must be a "year of action" for the country but that follows a year when the agenda went nowhere on capitol hill. here to preview the tuesday state of the union address is white house senior advisor dan pfeiffer. welcome back. we hear tuesday night for the third straight year the president's mainstream is income inequality and building ladders of opportunity. here is what he said last year. >> it is our generation's task to reignite the true engine of america's economic growth, a rising and thriving middle

class. >> what new or different ideas will the president offer this year to achieve that? >> what we will hear from the president on tuesday night is the series of concrete, practical, specific proposals on how to restore opportunity through a wide set of means, job training, education, manufacturing, energy, and they willing legislative and a number of actions to take on his own. >> i pick up on that because as we say, this is a familiar theme for the president, he talked about it the last two years. let's look at the obama record and what he proposed last year. the president proposed raising the minimum wage to $9 an hour. no problem. creating a network of 15 manufacturing hubs. in progress. universal preschool. nothing. major tax reform. nothing. tell us of the memo that is in the papers today you wrote and the president has accepted, to work around congress more and to do more through executive

action. >> i take issue with what you said. you say nothing happening on manufacturing hundreds, congress did not pass the proposal we want but we went on our own and have announced there is one running in ohio. >> but the 15 he asked for --. >> two are in place and two are in the pipeline. >> universal pre-k, we do not have the big proposal but we made progress in the budget. we are working where we can with congress and acting on our own where we can't. we have divided government. the republican congress is not going to rubber stamp the president's agenda. the president will not sign the republican congress' agenda. we can extend unemployment benefits if 1.6 million americans and pass farm and immigration reform and infrastructure or more. no one will get everything they want. also, the president will say he will not wait. he has a pen and he will use those to move the ball forward.

>> there have been presidents before such as ronald reagan and a number of them who is dealt with congresses of different party and gotten things through, a lost serious stuff. can can't this president? >> we have a budget this year, he has a legislate we record that stands up to any, the affordable care act and wall street reform and an array of issues with made progress on. last year, the american people looked at washington, dc, with the shutdown, the near default and they were frustrated is the president has tried tory build the trust with the american people and make progress. they want progress. either in congress or from the president. >> how much can you do, say the big thing is to get legislation, that is how the constitution written. how much can you do? >> two things in 2013: first the president put in police a climate action map to reduce

carbon pollution take historic steps that he did without congress. we works with the ftc, so we have issue wireless access to 99 percent of school districts in the country which is significant, done without congress. >> some say 9 real reason you have income inequality is because of the weak obama economic recovery. we will look at the numbers there. since the president took office, median household income has dropped from $55,900 to $52,100. and poverty has increased by 6.7 million to a record 46.5 million and participation in the labor force dropped from 55.7 percent, to 62.8 percent. wouldn't a stronger, morrow boston university economy and recovery solve a lot of the problems? >> absolutely, but this president inherited the worst

economic situation sin the great depression. >> the recession ended four years ago. >> and we created if the last six months, eight million. unemployment dropping to 8.7 percent. we are producing more oil. the out to industry is number one in the world again. we are making progress. there is more to do. it is important to remember that what we trying to do is restore opportunity for all members. grow the economy. create job. >> household income is down, labor force participation is down, food stamps up, poverty rate is up. if things are so great --. >> we have made tremendous progress but there is more work to do. the american businesses, miles per hour workers are doing the right thing. walk needs to him them. we have a series of proposals from last year and additional ones this year which have been been barn like racing the minimum rage, and if congress

did that, we would make tremendous progress. this can be a year of action and we can make real progress. we have to do it together. if congress doesn't act, the president will. >> something people say is a drag on the economy is obamacare and i want to put up these numbers. almost 400 businesses have cut workers and hours to avoid the employer mandate and major employers like target, home depot, walgreen and trader joe's are going to drop part time workers from health insurance and direct them to the obamacare exchange. despite the president's promise, isn't it true that first you had millions of people who were losing policies because they were in the individual market and now people are employed, part timers are on full timeers listen out of their health care plan that they supposedly like and are phonessed into the exchanges because of obamacare? >> first, two things. when we passed the affordable

care act everyone said it would be a job killer but we created 8 million jobs for american business and worker. >> the land does not go into effect until october. >> second, for --. >> and long before the affordable care act, what is different now, if your employer decides you have guarantee access to affordable health care and before the act you would not have a chance to be covered. >> but many are dropped because of the act. companies that were employing and giving health insurance to part time workers now will drop them because of all the regulations and a case of millions who want their plan. >> if you read the paper of the last decade you read stories of every day of employers making the same decisions.

>> are you suggesting that trader joes and target and walgreen that announced they will throw out people from the exchanges it has nothing to do with obamacare. >> you will havent gooded access to affordable health care with benefits. >> the supreme court said little sisters of the poor do not have to comply with the bet control mandate if they pursue their legal challenge. does the white house insist that the the nuns must sign a waiver there they say this violates their religious beliefs? >> this is the before the court and the court will hear the case. we believe our rules strike the right balance. >> but the little sisters say and the court feels there is enough support, they have stayed the birth control mandate and they say signing this certification and saying we will not do it but the third party, the insurance company can do it, that violated their religious

beliefs? >> the court says in the order that this should not be read to have any indication of their view of the merits. you will condition to insist? you are not backing off? >> there is a case before the court, they will rule and we think we struck the right balance. >> your position the little sisters should have to sign the certification and no changes? okay. >> an area of possible progress is immigration reform and house republican leaders and there was a big leak this weekend are working on a plan where they might offer legal status to the 11 million residents, undocumented workers would were here illegally not a path to citizenship but, perhaps, for wrong kids, the so-called dreamers but a legal status. is that a compromise the president would be willing to accept? >> what we should do is the president has been very clear.

he talked about it for years and campaigned on it in 2012 and supported the senate bill, and we think it is progress that the republicans will put something forward. this is not easy for them. this are divisions in the party. let's see what they put forward. >> you will give them some spay. this is not something in the state of the union you will beat them up about. >> the want wants to see what they put failure, he doesn't want an issue but he want a solution. >> you not saying we insist there has to be a path. >> we have been very clear about what we want. the president has been very clear. the american people support the president's position but let the house put the proposal forward and see what it says, and we go from there. >> congress did reach an agreement as you point out in december to keep the government from shut down, a bipartisan budget agreement but the next big berries of paul long -- big

perils of pauline is the debt limit in late december when you go interest default and republicans are talking about attaching something and batching a bailout of the insurance companies or repealing the medical device tax. would the president accept any policy tied to raiding the debt ceiling or does it have to be clean as a whistle? >> our position is the same in october and the same as the year: the american people should not have to pay members of congress ransom to do their basic job which is pay the bills any should spare the country the drama and damage of repeating the same thing. >> so it has to be clean? >> we are doing it the same way as before, we do not play the ransom. nothing has changed in our position. i hope the republicans follow the lead of the next guest,

senator mcconnell who said they would not go down this path again. >> i am sure he will appreciate that endorsement. thank you, dan, for coming in today. now we have heard the white house agenda, time to hear from the g.o.p. and the top republican in the senate, senator mcconnell, joins us next. >> what would you like to ask the minority member? we could use your questions on the air. leaders? we may use your question on the air.

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president obama has had a rough start to his second term,

but congressional republicans are held in even lower esteem by the public. joining us now to talk about the gop plan for country, the senate's top republican, mitch mcconnell of kentucky. senator, welcome back to fox news sunday. >> glad to be here, chris. >> you just heard the president's senior advisor, dan pfeiffer, talk about the president's agenda, what he wants to accomplish through congress, or as you says, increasingly through executive order working around congress. your reaction? >> well, now we're in the sixth year of the obama economy. more spending, more borrowing, more debt, more regulation. as was pointed out in your first segment, median house hole income down $2,300 a year during this period. family poverty statistics at the highest level since the statistics have been kept. i think it is time to go in a different direction and there are some job creating steps that he can take right now. he can approve the keystone

pipeline. can he work with us on trade agreements. my party is much more interested in global trade than the democrats are. if he would convince his own members, we can do some business on trade. he ought to stop things like the war on coal in my state which have cost us 5,000 jobs during his administration. >> what do you think about this idea this congress is just impossible, i'm going to do more through executive action. >> ronald reagan didn't think that and bill clinton didn't think that. frequently times of divided government are quite good times in terms of achieving things for the american people. this president it seems to me after the 2010 election when the american public issued a, shall we say, restraining order, the president has sort of hung out on the left and tried to get what he wants through the bureaucracy as opposed to moving to the political center. the kinds of things that i just outlined, chris, are things that we can do with him.

we're anxious to help him create jobs but we're not going to go over an endorse more spending, more debt, more tax and more regulations. >> the president's theme of income inquality, one is unemployment benefits. more than 1 million americans have lost their unemployment benefits since they ran out in december. senate republicans are saying, one -- not unreasonably -- you have to pay for it. if you're going to spend the money, find some other way to pay for it. you also want to support a bunch of other amendments. isn't that the same thing that makes your party look har hearted and. non-careing? >> i don't think so. you know how many republican roll call votes we've had since last july? four. the majority leader is using a device only occasionally used by previous majority leaders of both parties to prevent us from even offering our ideas. that's why the senate has been so dysfunctional over the last six months and even actually

prior to that. it's not inappropriate to have amendments. that's what we come to the senate to do, to offer amendments and suggestions. with regard to unploim, we're open to discussing that. we do think, as you suggested in your question, that we ought not add it to the national debt which is now as big as our economy which makes us look like a western european country. surely in a $3 trillion annual expenditure we can find a place to pay for an extended unemployment insurance. had is something we ought to be able to work out. >> the president also wants and i'm sure he'll call for it on tuesday to raise the minimum wage $10.10 an hour over three years. doesn't it make sense -- isn't it reasonable that somebody who's working full-time, 40 hours a week, should be able to live above the poverty line? >> yeah. but of course, the minimum wage is mostly an entry level wage for young people. we have a crisis in employment among young people right now. the generation 18 to 30, the

people that got out of college are finding there are no jobs for them. last thing we want to do is have even fewer jobs for younger people. it is no question that the minimum wage increase, if not done in conjunction with some kind of incentives for the businesses not to lay off employees are going to dramatically increase unemployment. i don't think in this jobless recovery we ought to be doing things that create fewer jobs. we ought to be doing things that create more jobs. >> you heard as you were coming in my discussion with dan pfeiffer about raising the debt limit. after the government shutdown in october which republicans took the hit for, you were quoted as saying we are not going to threaten default again by attaching conditions. but more recently, you said you don't think there's any chance that a clean, without any condition, debt bill could get through the senate. so which is it? >> well, those statements are not inconsistent. some of the most significant

legislation passed in the last 50 years have been in conjunction with the debt ceiling. congressional review act. the clinton republican congress deficit reduction package in the late '90s that led to three years in a row of balanced budgets. t i think for the president to ask for a clean debt ceiling when we have a debt the size of our economy is irresponsible. so we ought to discuss adding something to his request to raise the debt ceiling. it produces at least something positive for our country. >> but you just heard dan pfeiffer say the president is where he is and he's not going to bargain, he's not going to put something on the debt limit. the fact is -- they talk about the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over an over again and expecting a different result -- when you get in these crises, whether a government shutdown or possible default, the public tends to side with the president at a time when the president's numbers are low, obamacare is

creating a lot of concerns about this president, you really want to get in a fight over the debt limit? >> we tawant to try to accompli something for the country. any president's request to raise the debt ceiling, whether this one or previous presidents, is a good opportunity to try to do something about the debt. i think the president is taking an unreasonable position to suggest that we ought to treat his request to the debt ceiling like some kind of motherhood resolution that everybody just says aye and we don't do anything when we have this stag innocent economy and massive debt created under his administration. >> are you saying right here we are going to attach something to the debt ceiling? and if so, what? >> ima he saying we ought to attach something significant for the country to his request to increase the debt ceiling. that's been the pattern for 50 years, going back to the eisenhower administration. i think it is the responsible thing to do for the country and i think he is the one being irresponsible by saying, oh, just raise the debt ceiling, we're not going to do anything

about the debt or anything else that's important to the country. >> any specific idea? >> keystone pipeline. a good example of something that would create jobs for the american people. the house of representatives will initiate the discussion on the debt ceiling increase. they probably will have other ideas. >> how about banning any bailout, this affecting the risk corridors on obamacare? >> all of those would be important steps in the right direction. we need not have a default -- we never got a default. the speaker and i made that clear. we've never done that. but, it's irresponsible not to use the discussion -- the request of the president to raise the debt ceiling to try to accomplish something for the country. >> i know you like being senate minority leader. i know you would even prefer to be senate majority leader so let's talk about the playing field for the november election in 2014. democrats now have a 55-45-seat advantage but the democrats must

defend 21 seats in november, while republicans defend 15. how do you pick up a net of six seats which is what you're going to need, a net of six seats, when there are a number of tea party challengers who could win primaries, even unseed incumbents, but then be too conservative and too unelectable when it comes to november? >> well, you touch on an important point. in order to win in november you have to have an electable candidate. i'm very confident that in every single place where we have an opportunity for a pick-up we're going to have a very electable candidate, not just in the primary but in the general as well in west virginia, north carolina, louisiana, arkansas, south dakota, alaska, montana, michigan. all of those states we have very good candidates who can win elections. and, chris, the atmosphere for us is so good this fall that we're also stretching the playing field. we spent to be competitive in places like minnesota and new hampshire and colorado.

so i think it could be a very good year historically. the sixth year of a two-term presidency is not very good to the party of the president and we believe that, coupled with the fact that the locations of the races are in very red states. seven of of those states i mentioned, mitt romney, 6 of the 7 he carried by double digits. >> here's a question from david -- democratic bashing only appeals to your base. what is on the docket to reach out to the undecideds and across the aisle? tell david briefly the positive gop agenda. >> look, we believe that the american people will understand by this fall that we are the party of the private sector. we've tried big government now for six years in a row. we know that doesn't work. we've had a tutorial, an experiment with spending and borrowing and taxing and regulating. i think the american people are now -- surveys indicate -- very skeptical of all of these

government solutions the president continues to offer and we're going to make the point that let's try the private sector for a while. let's make it easy to create jobs and opportunity for our people. the government is not going to get that job done. we've seen that. >> final question. you face your own tea party challenge in kentucky this spring. a fellow businessman named matt bevin who has a web ad up. here it is. ♪ >> i like the music. what do you make of matt bevin? >> look, i don't own the nomination of my party or the seat that the people of kentucky have given me and i fully intend to inmy pwin my primary.

he's making the argument that somehow i'm an obama enabler. i'm sure the white house is snigerring about that. republican voters in kentucky don't believe that. >> he's saying you have voted repeatedly to raise the debt ceiling. you voted for the wall street bailout so are you not a true conservative. >> i was 1 of 5 u.s. senators last year that got a perfect rating from the american conservative union. the argument that i'm some kind of liberal is absurd and that will be rejected by the republican primary voters in kentucky on may 20th. >> senator mcconnell, thanks for coming in today. always a pleasure to talk with you, sir. up next, you our sunday panel and what they'll be wapg for in president obama's state of the union address. be sure to tell us what you think on facebook and share your favorite moments from today's show with our fns fans. i'm nathan and i quit smoking with chantix. when my son was born, i remember, you know, picking him up and holding him against me. it wasn't just about me anymore. i had to quit.

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. this administration's aagain did to create more government, more spending, more taxes and more debt has created an inequality crisis of opportunity in our country. those policies have been disproportionately hurtful to the poorest among us for the past five years. >> missouri senator roy blunt laying out the gop response to president obama's state of the union address even before it's delivered. it's time now for our sunday group. brit hume, fox news senior political analyst. julie pace who covers the white house for the associated press. syndicated columnist george will, and former democratic senator, evan bayh. well, i went back this week and read president obama's state of the union's speech from last year and a couple of points. first of all, it sounded almost identical to what we hear is going to be in the speech this year. then secondly, as i discussed with dan pfeiffer, almost none of the items, the agenda items the president proposed, got through. so the question is what does the president hope to accomplish

tuesday? >> i've covered rel wewell in e of 30 of these state of the union addresses. i can remember very little about any of them. some moments had nothing to with the speech itself. one was an outburst in the audience. one was a comment from samuel alito. another was a guest in the gallery that ronald reagan had that started this whole guest in the gallery business. i don't expect this one to be particularly memorable. his agenda has basically been frozen since the republicans took control of congress in 2010. there's not he can do. that's why you hear him talking about pens and telephones because he can't get anything through congress. i expect it to be a minimal consequence and perhaps similar to what he's gone for in the past because he hasn't gotten any of that. >> by the way, fox news will be

covering the president's speech. that's not a very good preview of the speech. it is going to be exciting. we're going to want to see it and the republican response. julie, how much of an agenda does the president really think that he can get from either congress or through dan pfeiffer's now talk about doing it through executive actions? >> i think the without is realistic when it comes to their agenda with congress it is going to be very limited. they may have a chance on immigration reform. you start to see some pieces move on the republican side there. if anything big gets done this year on the hill, it is going to be immigration. they'll make a run at minimum wage. that's something that he announced last year in the state of the union that went nowhere. so then you have to look at executive actions. as i heard you say in the interview with dan, the problem with executive action sthaz they're inherently limited. so they can come out every week an say we're signing an executive order on this or we're convening college presidents or business leaders to take action on job training or the long-term unemployed. that's a way to show momentum but the actual result is going to be far smaller than what you could do on capitol hill.

>> so, george, how much of this exercise on tuesday night is just about the president trying to change the subject and change the american people's attention from obamacare and all the problems with that to the subject that worked so well for him in 2012 which is the middle class and supporting these build -- building these ladders of opportunity. >> yes. well, it is a lot of changing the subject but what kind of a ladder is he going to build? in baseball you play what's called small ball, stealing bailses, bunting when you can't do anything else. this is the miniaturization of the president's agenda. a 23rd increase in the minimum wage since 1938? it may and good thing, a bad thing, but it's of marginal importance to the economy and of no importance to the middle class. universal preschool which, as you say, he endorses last year. we've had almost 50 years of experience with head start. the government's own studies show that the benefits from universal preschool are a,

small, and b, limited. they're not just limited, as the supreme court is going to say several times this spring often unconstitutional. so the shrinkage of the obama presidency will be on display i think tuesday night. >> one area of possible compromise -- there were leaks all over the papers this weekend -- is that the republicans want to do something serious about immigration reform. it won't be comprehensive. it will be piecemeal but the idea is that there would be a path to legalization for the 11 million here illegally, not necessarily a path to citizenship except for the so-called dreamers, people that were brought here as children. first of all, why do you think the republicans clearly are putting this out there, and what do you think of the prospects that you'll get a deal? >> two things, chris. the republicans are putting it out there because they did very poorly among hispanic voters in the last election. i think they realized if they're going to gain a majority in the senate and regain the presidency eventually, they've got to get this issue off their back. so i think they will move forward in the house with a

somewhat smaller package. then that will put the ball in the white house's court. advocates for reform an change are going to be very unyielding so that the pressure is going to be on the white house. do they compromise, to really get something done which would be in the country's best interests or do you save this issue and use it as a political stick in the mid-term elections which i think many allies of the democratic side in congress would favor. what are the odds? in this congress, betting on anything getting done? less than 50% had-50%. more than anything else, in your sixth year it is not about what you say. it is about what you do. and so executive action and frame being the election, probably in populous terms, to try and keep the senate, because if the democrats lose the senate it will be a very long final two years for the president. >> let's talk about the election, because, brit, the republicans won a sweeping victory in 2010 talking about

obamacare and government overreach. the president won re-election in 2012 talking about this populous middle class, champion of these ladders of opportunity. if those are the competing narratives in 2014, obamacare on the one hand, champion being the middle class on the other, which is the stronger argument? >> well, obamacare is such a problem for so many people. and negative emotions tend to outweigh positive emotions in voting patterns. when you have a large segment of the population that has either been damaged by obamacare or fears it will be, and that is hanging around the neck of nearly every democrat running, particularly some of the vulnerable senators who are running for re-election. it creates tremendous gravity that i think will be hard to overcome. plups t plus the historical gravity of the president's party. democrats are running uphill,

the republicans downhill. >> you can see the president teeing up minimum wage, unemployment benefits, hard-hearted republicans. do they think that can work for them and be a counter to obamacare? >> one of the interesting things about this inequality, the republicans are talking about that too. republicans aren't running away from this. minimum wage, there's a lot of people on both sides of the aisle that think there is a chance that republicans might jump on minimum wage. it is something that some business leaders have said might not be a problem for them. but again, i think you will see both sides talking about this. it is just how they seem to want to address the problem that will be different. >> we have to take a break here. when we come back, two years ahead of the first primaries for 2016, growing signs hillary clinton will run again. our sunday panel handicaps her chances and reviews -- check it out -- this magazine cover which places clinton at the center of the universe. you won't want to miss it.

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i believe that women everywhere can be, and are, agents of change, drivers of progress, makers of peace, all we need is a fighting chance to show what we can do in every part of life. >> hillary clinton continuing to keep the door wide open to a run for president in 2016. we're back now with the panel. well, as we mentioned in the tease to the last commercial, the "new york times" has an interesting cover out today. please collection it out. yep -- "planet hillary," it says, with a variety of political factors and factions being held together by her

gravitational pull. george, what do you make of it as art and what do you make of it as political commentary? >> bad. both. is she going to run? fish got to swim, birds got to fly and clintons have to run for office. that's all they do. it is a metabolic urge. all they've done all their life is borrow money from rich people and seek office. "the new york times's" article is a guide to this. a problem with this, nothing is more annoying to voters an infuriating to activists than a candidate that comes cloaked in an aura of inevitability because it says, you don't matter, this is a foregone conclusion. their inclination is to say, well, we'll just see about that. the context she will be running in this 2016 is first toward the end of a lost decade of slow economic growth. b, in 2016 we'll have had three consecutive two-term presidencies. the last time we had that, the

only other time we had had that, was jefferson, madison and monroe, before the two-party system emerged. we've had a period of uncommon stability in the presidency and that makes it even less likely that we're going to give a third term to the same party. >> in addition -- let me ask you, i'm just thinking. after monroe, was it jackson? >> john quincy adams. >> so it was one term. there you go. i'm so ignorant, folks. i'm so sorry. in addition to the magazine article, there were a number of interesting stories out in the last week, julie. i want to talk about it. about big democrats joining the hillary clinton bandwagon and perhaps the most interesting was the fact that jim messina, the campaign manager for barack obama in 2012, has now become co-chair of the big hillary super pac called priorities usa. from your sources in the white house, any sense of how the president is reacting to the idea of all of these people of his team so early jumping on the hillary bandwagon and what about

poor old joe biden? is he feeling like he's being left out in the dust, in the cold? >> so i don't have a great sense of how the president himself is thinking about this but people around him in the white house and people who are close to him outside the white house, when you do talk to them, there is some sense of, maybe this is happening a little too early. part of the reason why they think it is, it is a money issue, priorities wants to be out there. they want to be able to start raising money now and hillary clinton is the big ticket in the democratic party so if they align themselves as her they see a way to start getting money into the coffers a little bit early. poor joe biden. he's sitting there saying i'm sitting vice president and everybody is already looking at me as plan b. if mshillary clinton does decid not to run, whoever becomes the nominee bsh whether joe biden or anybody else -- at this point is going to so clearly look like the "b" team, the second choice. how democrats try to frame that

i think will be pretty problematic. >> do you get the sense that there is going to be more to follow after jim messina, more of the obama team that helped him win in 2012? >> it is more than jim messina at this point. you have people doing digital outreach, people who are doing analytics and targeting who have also lined up. you do have a lot of people from the obama campaign who were good at the things that the hillary clinton 2008 campaign was not good at, some of the new technologies who are also lining up behind her. >> one of the things that hillary clinton is going to have this year is a new book that is supposed to come out this summer about her time as secretary of sta state. all of her purported triumphs. but she's also going to have to deal with another issue. take a look. >> the fact is we had four dead americans. was it because of a protest or was it because of guys out for a walk one night decided to go kill some americans? what difference at this point does it make?

it is our job to figure out what happened and do everything we can to prevent it from ever happening again, senator. >> brit, how big an issue do you think benghazi will be for hillary clinton? >> it is a little hard to tell but it's been remarkably persistent. it's stayed alive despite repeated efforts on the left and in the media so friendly to the left to declare it irrelevant and dead. the senate report that came out was very careful not to name her but it laid tremendous amount of blame to very high levels of the state department as it led to the death of the american ambassador and three others. i think it is an issue that's out there. if this were a case where she had a very large and long record of major diplomatic achievements, doctrines or whatever associated with her in her tenure as secretary of state it wouldn't matter so much. as it is, this is one of the foremost things we remember about her tenure as secretary of state, which is one reason why this needs to be a convincing book that's coming out to try to

document that you really did have some kind of record of doing something beyond setting records for travel. >> i want to pick up on that. seems to me another problem potentially for hillary clinton is her successor, john kerry, who's been kind of whirling d dervish on the diplomatic scene. could kerry's record at the end of three or four years make clinton's look much less impressive? >> he's showing a lot of energy and there may be some comparisons there but i think unless there is a dramatic change in circumstances in our country, this is going to be an election driven by economics, t particularly how it affects the middle class. jobs, cost of health care, retirement security, all those sorts of things. i just don't think absent some new information of some kind benghazi will be all that important, or, frankly, her tenure as secretary of state. think it is going to be where she wants to lead in the future,

how she's going to get there and i think she's got some advantages when it comes to that. >> do any of the four of you doubt -- we know what george has said quoting pore gy and bess, any of you doubt that hillary clinton will run? >> yeah, i do. there is a chance she will but there is a significant possibility she will not. we don't know much about her we don't know much about her age, health, such things we need to take things under consideration. >> and the former president's >> the former president's healts could be an issue, and do any of you think she will face seriousi credible competition for thena democratic nomination if she runs? >> she'll face competition from the left. there will be a tribune from the left, there always is, but she's a unifying force. that gives her significant advantages, but she has other c advantages. theol electoral college tilts b 32 or 32 by the democratic

party, and most importantly, unless the republicans figure out the dysfunction at the heart of their party, it gives the democrat democrat democratic nominee a big advantage. >> at the start, credibility wao hillary's problem. the american people don't like w someone who is inevitably walking in as the candidate, and that will be the biggest thing w for her to overcome. >> been there, done that.he i saw this in indiana at the end of the primary process. shean started off as the e inevitable candidate.he she saw that crash and burn. by the time she reached our state, she was all about what can i do for the people, for the middle class?at i think she learned from that. >> when we come back, the gop tries to come up with a winning formula to stop losing presidential elections. presidential elections.

big reforms are coming to our presidential nominating process. reforms that put republican voters not the liberal media, in the driver's seat. >> republican national committee chair reince priebus announcing changes to the gop primary and convention calendar to try to help the gop take back the white house in 2016. we're back one more time with the panel. so republicans are shortening their schedule, their calendar for 2016. they're going to start the primaries as late as february, and they're going to hold a convention as early as june or

july. brit, will that help them avoid a bitter primary battle that forces the eventual nominee further to the right? >> i think it will help them avoid the bitter primary battle they had last time. they may have a different kind of bitter primary battle. what causes bitter battles are bitter divisions within the party represented by different candidates. i don't think you'll have a repeat of 2012 where we had serial front runners. almost week by week, as they sorted through this whole deck of minor players before mitt romney, who was sort of there from the beginning, remained the last man stunding, as somebody said, and won the thing. you don't anticipate there to be time for that to happen. it's a reasonable thing to do, but they have to get their party in line. that's the main thing they have got to do. >> that's the point. it's not just mechanics. it's also message. one of the things the party has

to find a better ability to do is reach out to women and to reach out to minorities. some people say that the gop stubbed its toe once again on that subject with comments by former governor mike huckabee. take a look. >> if the democrats want to insult the women of america by making them believe that they are helpless without ungen sugar coming in and providing for them a prescription each month for birth control because they cannot control their libido or reproductive system without the help of the government, so be it. >> now, let's make it clear. you're sitting here laughing. mike huckabee was accusing the democrats of doing that, but boy, this is a tricky issue for republicans, isn't it? >> it is. fortunately, i only have to write about candidates. i don't have to give them practical advice. if i were to, i would say to ca candicates on both sides of the aisle. put a list of words you shouldn't say in your pocket.

don't say them. even if you think you have a smart point, don't say them. for republicans, the thing they have to remember is this is becoming a narrative. no matter what you actually say, the democrats are going to jump on this and going to create an issue out of it. so maybe this is early enough that it's a lesson learned. >> george, how do you handicap the republican field at this very early point? and is chris christie still the legitimate front runner or have all these problems he's facing in new jersey, have they knocked him off? >> never mind his problems. i think they will pass, but i think there's no front runner. i think the party will turn, usually does, to a governor. we talk about the problems of the republican party. they have 30 governors. that's the most since the 1920s. those 30 governors represent states with 315 electoral votes. that's 45 more than needed to win. and 25 states, those republican governor and both houses of the

legislature. those states have 53% of the american population. republicans at the state level are building a record and have mastered the art of communicating. the party is not talking about libido all the time. >> if you were going to say three people that you would put up there right now as top tier, who would they be? >> chris christie. mike demps, the governor of indiana, and scott walker of wisconsin. >> what about rubio and cruz and rand paul? >> they're all in the race, but they have the defect of being senators who have never run anything largen than a senate office. >> and they're part of washington, which no one likes these days. >> what's your early line on the republican field? >> i agree with what george said. they would be best off nominating a governor because governors do things. they deliver result add a time where washington isn't doing that. washington is dysfunctional.

no one likes that. the heart of the problem for republicans is do they want to be a governing party, a republican party, or ronald regan said if i can get 80%, i'll take that and go back for the 20%. or do they insist on their ideology down the line? the domestic changes they're making, all good, but as long as there's just a handful of people out there willing to support the extremist candidates, it may be difficult. if you look at history, the economy, it's a 51/49 election with the advantage to the democrats right now assuming republicans nominate a centrist governor. if they go tea party, hillary has a good chance. >> thank you, panel, for added duty. now, this programming note. we'll see you next week live from super bowl life stadium in new jersey. we'll sit down with roger goodell, along with john elway and archie manning ahead of the faceoff between the broncos and the seahawks that will also be

on fox. and that's it for today. have a great week. and we'll see you next fox news sunday. it is 7:00 p.m. in the east. 4:00 on the west coast. we're live as fox reports tonight, and bringing you now a live look at washington, d.c. in the screen behind me. just as the nation gets ready to hear the president's state of the union address, the white house takes a swipe at congress. promising if lawmakers don't agree with president obama, he'll make law without them. and the backlash is swift. >> what he needs to be doing is building consensus and not taking his pen and creating law. >> tonight, a look at the reality and the headwinds pushing against president obama's agenda as he promises a year of action. five years after taking office.